Voters wait to cast their ballots during the 2021 snap parliamentary elections

Armenia’s Foreign Intelligence Service on Tuesday issued a cryptic statement that warned of threats of foreign interference in the upcoming June 7 election.

The intelligence agency issued the announcement to the state-run Armepress news agency, saying that “various actors” are attempting to interfere in the elections, without specifying the said “actors.” The statement alleged that the so-called “actors” are using pressure on Armenians abroad to support certain political parties in Armenia.

“The Foreign Intelligence Service receives intelligence that, in a foreign country, various actors—presenting themselves as representatives of that country’s special services—are attempting to exert pressure on individuals of Armenian origin and the citizens of the Republic of Armenia who are engaged in economic activities in that country, in order to induce them to undertake actions supporting certain political forces that have declared their intention to participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections in Armenia. These actions include, but are not limited to, the provision by the said businesspersons of financial and organizational support to those political forces,” the Foreign Intelligence Service said.

A few hours after the statement was issued, the Interior Ministry said that the Armenian police have already looked into the FIS statement and submitted a relevant “report of an apparent crime” to Armenia’s Investigative Committee.

Vahakn Aleksanyan, the Vice-President of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract Party, took to social media later Tuesday to hint that the country in question in the FIS report was Russia, which allegedly had elaborate plans to interfere in the elections, including ordering Armenians living abroad to travel to Armenia to vote in the polls.

During a campaign rally in Gyumri over the weekend, Pashinyan also mentioned rumors that “they will be bringing people from Russia” to vote for the opposition.

“Let them bring [such people] because 84.5 percent of those who will come, according to the polls we have conducted there, will vote for us,” Pashinyan said.

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